Word: outbreaks
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...Scientists confirmed they were infected with H5N1, the avian influenza strain responsible for 60 human deaths in Asia since 2003. Experts now fear the virus is inexorably winging its way toward Europe. Turkish authorities quickly imposed a quarantine around the infected farm, culling 8,600 birds. But another H5N1 outbreak hit Romania's Danube delta wetlands, across the Black Sea from Turkey. In the village of Ceamurlia de Jos, Romanians began killing 50,000 fowl. Local farmers wept as they watched their livelihoods destroyed. Romanian poultry products and Turkish live birds were immediately banned by the European Union, as governments...
...past two years, scientists, public-health officials and even a high-ranking government official or two have warned about the potential danger of a deadly worldwide outbreak, or pandemic, of avian flu. But it took a couple of furies named Katrina and Rita to really bring home how much can go wrong if you don't plan for major emergencies...
Since 1997, the H5N1 strain of the avian-flu virus has traveled steadily west across Asia. The current outbreak began in December 2003, infecting humans in Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia. Although Southeast Asia has borne the brunt of the disease, scientists fear that infected migratory birds will spread it further, resulting in a global pandemic...
...Indonesia, these attacks come at a vulnerable moment. Authorities are still struggling to control a potentially disastrous outbreak of bird flu that has left six dead in recent months. And on the same day as last week's bombings, Yudhoyono announced drastic fuel-price hikes designed to shore up the government's shaky finances by slashing billions of dollars in subsidies. With Bali accounting for more than half of Indonesia's vital tourism revenues, the likely exodus of visitors from the island will place further pressure on the country's economy...
...Macquarie's Curson envisages delays in the vaccine project that could mean a pandemic was over before anyone had received a shot. Officials have tended to sugarcoat the prospect of an outbreak, he says, and there's nothing in NIPAC's plan about managing public hysteria. "There's a feeling in Australian society that the government will protect us, that we don't need to do anything," he says. "But people are going to be thrust back on their own resources...